Guinea Ebola infections double as hidden cases discovered
Updated: 2015-02-06 20:42
(Agencies)
|
||||||||
CONAKRY - The number of people sick with Ebola fever has doubled in Guinea in the past week following the discovery of cases previously unknown to health authorities, a Guinea health official said on Friday.
About two dozen new suspected and confirmed Ebola cases were recorded in the past two weeks, taking the total number to 53 as of Friday, Fode Tass Sylla, a spokesman for Guinea's anti-Ebola task force, said.
Sylla said the increase was expected because health authorities were only now gaining access to faraway villages where inhabitants had previously prevented them from entering.
"This increase in new case numbers is because we are now able to get to villages where we are discovering hidden sick cases," he said.
The new cases highlights difficulties authorities in the three worst-hit West African states -- Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia -- face in trying to curb the spread of the epidemic that has killed nearly 9,000 people.
Thought to be declining at the start of 2015, the number of new Ebola cases rose in all three countries for the first time this year in the past week, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.
Some 36 villages in the south and western forest region of Guinea, where the first case of Ebola was recorded, had previously been inaccessible to health officials because villagers sometimes used violence to stop health workers.
"Even in Conakry (Guinea's coastal capital), there are some neighbourhoods such as Ratoma where we had the same kind of situation," Sylla said.
Guinea's government on January 10, set a 60-day target to completely eradicate the disease in the nation, a gold, iron ore and bauxite producer but where nearly 60 percent of the population live below the poverty line.
However, there are doubts this could be achieved due to high levels of mistrust of health authorities, the practice of traditional rituals such as burials, and general misinformation about the disease.
- Blood from Ebola survivors could help spur new disease treatments
- Top-level lab gears up to study Ebola virus
- Chinese hotel stays open in Liberia despite Ebola
- Top-level lab gears up to study Ebola virus
- Trial finds GSK Ebola shot is safe and provokes immune response
- Weekly Ebola cases below 100, WHO says endgame begins
Bringing Hollywood into your home
Snow turns village in Xinjiang into a fairy world
Global firms that changed top execs after China biz hurdle
65th Berlinale International Film Festival opens
Young TV producer crowned Queen of Amazon tribe
Family members mourn air crash victims
Australian journalist Peter Greste arrives home
Celebrating being mermaids at Merfest convention
Most Viewed
Editor's Picks
![]()
|
![]()
|
![]()
|
![]()
|
![]()
|
![]()
|
Today's Top News
Chinese Americans growing as spenders
Yum and McDonald's profits drop after supplier scandal
Australia lawmakers set to vote on PM Abbott's future
4 children killed in Texas house fire
Canadian detained on suspicion of stealing state secrets
'Rich agenda' for China, US cooperation: official
Chinese IPOs in US could cool
US deputy secretary of state to visit Asia
US Weekly
![]()
|
![]()
|